iPhone found ready for enterprise, better than BlackBerry
A close study has shown that opening the doors to iPhones at large-scale business has not only made workers happier but has often saved money over competing smartphones in the process.
In a report issued last week, Ted Schadler of Forrester Research has presented an about-face for the research group's attitude towards iPhones that recommends businesses consider the devices for their network and that many users are genuinely more interested in accessing work content on an iPhone than on corporate mainstays using Microsoft or Research in Motion software. Using the web is a "chore" on a BlackBerry but intuitive on an iPhone, Schadler writes, and many workers are ultimately happier when they can pick their phones instead of having that choice dictated by IT.
Where Forrester had previously warned companies to avoid iPhones when possible due to the high phone prices and lack of security, it now says that many of these legacy worries have been softened significantly in the wake of Apple's iPhone 2.x firmware and uses Amylin Pharmaceutical, Kraft Foods, and Oracle as examples of how permitting the phones ultimately helped their respective bottom lines.
Amylin's senior IT director Todd Stewart describes iPhones as being easier to support than "other mobile platforms" and that iPhone 2.0's hooks for Exchange calendaring and e-mail meant it only took three days to ready the 3,000-person firm to support iPhones. The relative strength of mobile Safari and the e-mail client has led many to treat their systems more like netbooks than mobile devices.
On a pure cost basis, the phones themselves are less expensive to run: their combined plans save about $360 per year, per phone. Stewart adds that individual ownership of devices, instead of handing them out from a corporate pool, has also trimmed costs by persuading workers they should be more careful with their smartphones.
"If an employee owns his own device, the phone tends to hit the pavement a lot less," he says.
Kraft, meanwhile, emphasizes that the iPhone was brought in to support a "culture change" at the company and that many of those using iPhones are happier than they were before they switched. It pushes the company at large to use newer technology and has been cutting costs by letting iPhone owners get their own support rather than depend on the company alone for help. "Overall they provide better support than we can," one person from the company's IT management says.
Oracle sees the iPhone's software development base as a way of rendering its business tools mobile and sees the smartphone as offering possibilities that weren't there before. The company plans to develop apps for customer relations management and other key aspects of its business, and at the iPhone 3.0 SDK event demonstrated some of these apps in advance of their release.
Some problems still remain and range from hardware to purely administrative issues. Besides the sometimes short battery life, calendar sync and VPN auto-login aren't fully in place. Management tools to control the phones' security are still relatively scarce, and features that are for now taken for granted in veteran mobile operating systems, like copy-and-paste text, aren't in place as of April. As many businesses won't necessarily keep traditional company-wide accounts, it's often necessary to move users either to individual corporate accounts or even personal accounts that are matched with official compensation.
iPhone 3.0's release in the summer should address some of these problems, particularly CalDAV for calendars, a more automated VPN login process, and significantly tighter security policies that involve disabling built-in cameras in high-security environments as well as creating encrypted backups.
Even with the immediate hurdles, all three of the sample companies have had rapid growth or expect to in the future. Oracle currently counts 4,000 iPhones among its total mobile base; Kraft is adding 400 phones a month and may top 5,000 by December, while Amylin despite its size still anticipates that as many as 650 of its smartphone-equipped workers -- or 75 percent -- will use iPhones by the end of the year.
And notions that BlackBerries are go-to devices should fade, according to Schadler, who argues that smartphone use is no longer dominated solely by e-mail and schedules, with other functions often falling short on those phones that center too heavily on obvious corporate uses.
"We find the BlackBerry better for email and calendaring and the iPhone better for everything else," he notes.
In a report issued last week, Ted Schadler of Forrester Research has presented an about-face for the research group's attitude towards iPhones that recommends businesses consider the devices for their network and that many users are genuinely more interested in accessing work content on an iPhone than on corporate mainstays using Microsoft or Research in Motion software. Using the web is a "chore" on a BlackBerry but intuitive on an iPhone, Schadler writes, and many workers are ultimately happier when they can pick their phones instead of having that choice dictated by IT.
Where Forrester had previously warned companies to avoid iPhones when possible due to the high phone prices and lack of security, it now says that many of these legacy worries have been softened significantly in the wake of Apple's iPhone 2.x firmware and uses Amylin Pharmaceutical, Kraft Foods, and Oracle as examples of how permitting the phones ultimately helped their respective bottom lines.
Amylin's senior IT director Todd Stewart describes iPhones as being easier to support than "other mobile platforms" and that iPhone 2.0's hooks for Exchange calendaring and e-mail meant it only took three days to ready the 3,000-person firm to support iPhones. The relative strength of mobile Safari and the e-mail client has led many to treat their systems more like netbooks than mobile devices.
On a pure cost basis, the phones themselves are less expensive to run: their combined plans save about $360 per year, per phone. Stewart adds that individual ownership of devices, instead of handing them out from a corporate pool, has also trimmed costs by persuading workers they should be more careful with their smartphones.
"If an employee owns his own device, the phone tends to hit the pavement a lot less," he says.
Kraft, meanwhile, emphasizes that the iPhone was brought in to support a "culture change" at the company and that many of those using iPhones are happier than they were before they switched. It pushes the company at large to use newer technology and has been cutting costs by letting iPhone owners get their own support rather than depend on the company alone for help. "Overall they provide better support than we can," one person from the company's IT management says.
Oracle sees the iPhone's software development base as a way of rendering its business tools mobile and sees the smartphone as offering possibilities that weren't there before. The company plans to develop apps for customer relations management and other key aspects of its business, and at the iPhone 3.0 SDK event demonstrated some of these apps in advance of their release.
Some problems still remain and range from hardware to purely administrative issues. Besides the sometimes short battery life, calendar sync and VPN auto-login aren't fully in place. Management tools to control the phones' security are still relatively scarce, and features that are for now taken for granted in veteran mobile operating systems, like copy-and-paste text, aren't in place as of April. As many businesses won't necessarily keep traditional company-wide accounts, it's often necessary to move users either to individual corporate accounts or even personal accounts that are matched with official compensation.
iPhone 3.0's release in the summer should address some of these problems, particularly CalDAV for calendars, a more automated VPN login process, and significantly tighter security policies that involve disabling built-in cameras in high-security environments as well as creating encrypted backups.
Even with the immediate hurdles, all three of the sample companies have had rapid growth or expect to in the future. Oracle currently counts 4,000 iPhones among its total mobile base; Kraft is adding 400 phones a month and may top 5,000 by December, while Amylin despite its size still anticipates that as many as 650 of its smartphone-equipped workers -- or 75 percent -- will use iPhones by the end of the year.
And notions that BlackBerries are go-to devices should fade, according to Schadler, who argues that smartphone use is no longer dominated solely by e-mail and schedules, with other functions often falling short on those phones that center too heavily on obvious corporate uses.
"We find the BlackBerry better for email and calendaring and the iPhone better for everything else," he notes.
Comments
1) I would need a North American data and voice plan as I travel extensively between the US and Canada.
2) My IT department.
Searching email
cut and paste
store and email attachments from the phone
3.0 will take care of the first two, right? How about the ability to attach files?
No doubt it is far, far better than a Blackberry for internet access. It you are using web based applications at work, it would be a better choice.
not very corporate if you want to load a sales app for your sales force and you have to use the App Store to do it. one the blackberry you can load apps by packaging them into an executable
The iPhone is quite simply light years ahead in stability and usability - and to be frank, if the whole planet got to play with one, (and it had a better camera and was thinner), the iPhone could occupy an even larger chunk of ALL markets, from kids to corporate. It's robust hardware and OS means that the iPhone will remain relevant and in your pocket so much longer, the price is less of an issue. It is an investment.
(Do I sound like an Apple fanboy? Actually, I am a Mac user, but the iPhone is what makes me a fan - the OS is so incredible. I actually think Apple should dump OS X desktop and create large 'iPhone' type devices from the rumored 7 to 10" giant iPod Touch to 30" iMac Touches. Imagine PhotoShop or Excel with multitouch? They would be so much easier and faster to operate.)
Phew! Bed time. (Oh, guess what, I don't even have an iPhone, but I do have an iPod Touch V2. Lovely!)
About attachments, I would imagine we would be able to with C/paste. That's the point to it.
I have an iPhone and love it, but I don't use it for work. There are some things that people miss for business use, as often been repeated:
Searching email
cut and paste
store and email attachments from the phone
3.0 will take care of the first two, right? How about the ability to attach files?
No doubt it is far, far better than a Blackberry for internet access. It you are using web based applications at work, it would be a better choice.
I'm not sure I get why people like the BlackBerry better for e-mail. I have one & hate it, I think the interface is absolutely horrible.
I am in the IT department where I work & have gotten to work with iPhones quite a bit while setting them up with wifi & exchange. I can't wait for Snow Leopard as I hate Entourage. It'd be nice if I could switch from my BlackBerry to an iPhone.
For me it isn't cool factor or the web capabilities. I just get sick of these apps that are so cluttered & difficult to use.
can you load apps on an iphone without itunes?
not very corporate if you want to load a sales app for your sales force and you have to use the App Store to do it. one the blackberry you can load apps by packaging them into an executable
Check Page 11 of this pdf:
http://images.apple.com/iphone/enter...Enterprise.pdf
A little info can make a big difference, I guess.
can you load apps on an iphone without itunes?
not very corporate if you want to load a sales app for your sales force and you have to use the App Store to do it. one the blackberry you can load apps by packaging them into an executable
An enterprise developer allows download without the need for iTunes.
I have an iPhone and love it, but I don't use it for work. There are some things that people miss for business use, as often been repeated:
Searching email
cut and paste
store and email attachments from the phone
3.0 will take care of the first two, right? How about the ability to attach files?
No doubt it is far, far better than a Blackberry for internet access. It you are using web based applications at work, it would be a better choice.
The last one would probably require some type of file-system application, and that's not likely to be in 3.0. Maybe next year?
can you load apps on an iphone without itunes?
not very corporate if you want to load a sales app for your sales force and you have to use the App Store to do it. one the blackberry you can load apps by packaging them into an executable
Yes you can--and Apple's tools officially support doing so. Companies can create apps for internal use only, and bypass the iTunes Store. (This has been true since the beginning--it's an option you're presented with when you sign up as an iPhone developer.)
Very corporate
I'm not sure I get why people like the BlackBerry better for e-mail. I have one & hate it, I think the interface is absolutely horrible.
...
I tend to agree, but aside from "old habits die hard," email search is one huge reason I'm sure. (And a reason Apple has addressed with 3.0.)
The last one would probably require some type of file-system application, and that's not likely to be in 3.0. Maybe next year?
I'd by happy just to see 3rd-party support for attachments from apps. Air Sharing gives me a useful file system--now let me email any one of those files
3.0 adds the ability for any app to have direct access to email. So potentially you can attach and email anything from any app that has direct access to email.
Searching email
cut and paste
store and email attachments from the phone
3.0 will take care of the first two, right? How about the ability to attach files?
Searching email
cut and paste
store and email attachments from the phone
3.0 will take care of the first two, right? How about the ability to attach files?
The iPhone software will make the first two available, but there are a few simple solutions to the last one. One of them is QuickOffice, which I use often. You just have to be willing to incorporate it into your work style. It allows you to upload files to your iPhone through wifi, or you can view your MobileMe iDisk (if you have an account, but it works either way). One of the many great things about having MobileMe...
I would agree with that, although I'd include memos, tasks, contacts, and anything else that requires a keyboard in that list. And for me, the 'everything else' is games and music.
It all depends on where your priorities lie. My priorities are messaging and music, so I carry both a Blackberry Curve and an iPod Touch.
I'm not sure I get why people like the BlackBerry better for e-mail. I have one & hate it, I think the interface is absolutely horrible.
I am in the IT department where I work & have gotten to work with iPhones quite a bit while setting them up with wifi & exchange. I can't wait for Snow Leopard as I hate Entourage. It'd be nice if I could switch from my BlackBerry to an iPhone.
For me it isn't cool factor or the web capabilities. I just get sick of these apps that are so cluttered & difficult to use.
Um......I find the above quote a bit hard to believe, or.....the person spends more time on the net and playing with apps, then doing emails. I (unfortunately) reply, send, etc, probably 25-30 emails on the phone a day. Many of these emails are fairly long. There is NO way I would want to use an iphone for these longer emails. (not to mention all the variety of attachments etc). I agree with the article. The blackberry is better for emails, the iphone everything else. Oh, I don't use a blackberry btw, I still use a treo 755p, but I sure plan on getting a 9630 eventually. And keeping my iPod Touch in my briefcase for playing, and surfing at hot spots. When the iphone gets a physical qwerty keyboard, and allows serious GPS apps with voice routing (like garmin) I would throw away everything else, and get one
LanPhantom
This is really huge for the iPhone and Apple in general. Next thing you know, Forrester is going to recommend businesses consider heterogeneous desktop environments to maintain long-term computing flexibility!
I can easily picture this one little research paper adding 2-3MM iPhone/iPod Touch units per year!
I'm not sure I get why people like the BlackBerry better for e-mail. I have one & hate it, I think the interface is absolutely horrible.
I was actually starting to think the same thing last week as I was searching for something on my co-worker's blackberry. I used to love the BB, as it was simple and easy to use with one hand. When they dropped the click wheel, you lost much of that function. The home screen is a complete mess...
...but, when it comes to typing anything more than one or two lines, the Blackberry still wins.
The flip side of that argument is that you need to be very careful writing more than two lines when you are on the road and only putting half your attention into composition of a response. I just wish the iPhone made it easier to flag things for follow-up later.
...but, when it comes to typing anything more than one or two lines, the Blackberry still wins.
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